A collection of communications drones (i.e., Cell on Drone—CoD), such as Femto cell communications drones, may be used to provide elements of a communication network. CoDs may be quickly deployed, which makes them useful for creating an ad hoc communication network. Networks generally have quality of service (QoS) and/or quality of experience (QoE) requirements that must be maintained continuously. However, the use of CoDs has operational limitations. A need for a communication network to be continuously maintained may conflict with drone onboard power limitations. For battery powered drones, there is a tradeoff between the amount of energy expended during flight and the transmission power used by the communication drone; extending flight time may require reducing the transmission power. Thus, a network of CoDs will require periodic replacements of individual drones to enable recharging, which raises the need to find and substitute in replacement CoDs.
When replacing a CoD drone, the offloading or handoff of communications to the replacement communication drone may unintentionally interfere with wireless communications of neighboring CoDs. If a user equipment (UE) using a CoD-provided communications network receives communications from two communications drones with the same physical cell identity (PCI), a PCI confusion or PCI collision can occur. A collision can occur when a UE is within range of two cells that each has the same PCI assigned and are simultaneously broadcasting to the UE. Confusion may occur when the UE is within range of two cells that each have the same PCI and the UE cannot distinguish between the two cells. Such confusions or collisions can render the UE unable to identify the cell correctly. Confusion can cause handover procedures from one cell to another cell to fail. The larger the number of small cells (e.g., micro, pico, or femto cells), the greater this problem becomes.